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Türkiye: Court Removes Leadership of Main Opposition Party
(Istanbul) – A court decision ordering the removal of the party chair and leadership of Türkiye’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), is the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights in Türkiye, Human Rights Watch said today.
On May 21, 2026, the 36th Ankara regional court of appeal issued an interim measure to remove the CHP chair, Özgür Özel, and the entire party leadership and annul the November 4-5, 2023, party congress at which party delegates elected them. The court restored the previous party leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the May 2023 presidential election to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and had been replaced by Özel at the party congress.
“The court’s decision to remove Özgür Özel and the entire CHP leadership is part of the Erdoğan government’s broader political efforts to sideline the main political opposition in ways that profoundly undermine civil and political rights and Türkiye’s democratic process,” said Benjamin Ward, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “After the government jailed the Istanbul mayor and CHP presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu, and other CHP mayors and officials on bogus charges, it is clear that the Turkish authorities want to remove the current leadership of the CHP as a viable force in politics.”
The court decision to annul the party congress is a highly unusual interference in a political party’s internal party election and chosen leadership. Illegitimate efforts to interfere with the functioning of a political party or to effect its closure or the ability of elected leaders to operate as political candidates, constitute at a minimum a violation of the rights to freedom of association (article 11) and to free and fair elections (article 3, protocol 1) under the European Convention on Human Rights. Türkiye has a poor record of unlawful closure of and interference with political parties and the ongoing abusive tactics by the Erdoğan government to remove the CHP as a political force give rise to violations that go to the heart of a democratic society based on human rights and rule of law.
A review of the timeline of the leadership case demonstrates a clear political motivation on the part of Türkiye’s president in securing Özel’s removal, Human Rights Watch said. In the March 2024 local elections, under his leadership, the CHP received 37.8 percent of the vote nationally, surpassing the 35.5 percent for President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which lost its lead for the first time in 22 years.
In October 2024, President Erdoğan made the first of several speeches suggesting that Özel had been elected party leader at the 2023 CHP congress in a dubious manner. In February 2025, the Ankara public prosecutor’s office announced an investigation into complaints about the 2023 congress. The complaints came from a few former and current CHP members opposed to Özel’s leadership who alleged, but provided no concrete evidence, that Özel and others had been elected through a fraudulent process entailing buying votes. The CHP leadership rejects the allegations.
In October 2025, after several hearings, the Ankara administrative court hearing the case dismissed it on the basis that Özel had also been elected leader in two further congresses in 2025. The decision prompted the complainants to appeal to the Ankara regional court, which, on May 21, upheld their complaint and nullified the 2023 congress, and also invalidated the subsequent congresses at which the Özel leadership was re-elected, without citing any evidence to justify its decision.
A separate ongoing criminal case in the Ankara 26th Criminal Court of First Instance is reviewing claims that İmamoğlu and 11 others paid delegates to vote for Özel at the congress. The indictment is based on vague assertions without demonstrable evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Following the court’s decision, Özel and the party leadership convened at the Ankara party headquarters, and in a news conference and an address to supporters gathered outside the party building, Özel stated that he would not leave the party building and accused the courts of staging a coup against the opposition.
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek described the court’s decision as “consolidating our citizens’ trust in democracy.” Gürlek was the Istanbul chief public prosecutor in October 2024 when investigations against the CHP started there. On February 10, 2026, after the completion of the investigations into İmamoğlu, Gürlek was appointed justice minister.
On May 22, in his role as court-appointed party leader, Kılıçdaroğlu’s first action was to fire the three CHP lawyers responsible for lodging the party’s appeal to the Court of Cassation against the removal of the Özgür Özel leadership and to appoint new ones who immediately applied to withdraw that appeal.
Mental Health Is Another Unfortunate ICE Casualty
Against the backdrop of Mental Health Awareness Month and the advancement of Congress’ budget reconciliation bill, hundreds of immigrants, community members, and allies gathered in the nation’s capital on May 20 for a peaceful march from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) headquarters to the Capitol.
The demonstration was held to protest the budget reconciliation bill’s funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE’s parent agency. ICE has terrorized communities and harmed the mental health of many. The bill’s proposed additional $71 billion in funding would come with none of the lifesaving oversight and reforms that Human Rights Watch and others have repeatedly called for.
Abusive immigration detention is profoundly harmful to mental health; under the current administration, well-documented cases of medical neglect and inhumane treatment at detention centers and the gutting of oversight bodies has only made things worse. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the mortality rate in ICE detention in 2026 is on track to be the highest in 20 years—18 people have already died this year in detention, and 5 of those deaths have been categorized as apparent suicides.
Outside of detention, DHS subjects people across the country to extreme mental anguish. Healthcare workers in immigrant communities have described a notable rise in anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among patients. Children in some communities are afraid to leave their homes, and if they do leave, some fear returning home to find that a parent has been taken from them. Some people of color, including US citizens, and their family members live in fear that they or a loved one will be subject to DHS’s violent immigration enforcement practices.
Meanwhile, the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, passed in July 2025, will cut over a trillion dollars from rights-essential public programs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) over the coming years, putting millions of at risk of losing access to health care and of experiencing food insecurity.
In reviewing the budget reconciliation bill, Congress should prioritize meaningful oversight of enforcement operations and detention facilities, as well as accountability measures for human rights violations, to prevent additional deaths and harm to mental health.
DR Congo: Renewed Repression, Impunity Top Rights Concerns
(Kinshasa) – The Human Rights Watch executive director, Philippe Bolopion, urged senior Congolese officials to respect freedom of expression, end arbitrary arrests and detentions, and ensure accountability for abuses during his visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo from May 17 to 21, 2026, Human Rights Watch said today.
The visit took place against a backdrop of the Rwandan-backed M23 armed group’s occupation in eastern Congo; a crackdown against journalists, activists, and political opposition members; and the renewed use of secret detention sites in the capital, Kinshasa.
“The current crackdown in Congo is eerily reminiscent of the Joseph Kabila era, with many Congolese activists and political opponents living in fear of retaliation by the authorities for merely expressing their opinion,” Bolopion said. “Human Rights Watch is concerned that restrictions on free expression and criticism of officials could usher in a broader repression.”
While in Kinshasa, Bolopion met with senior government officials, including Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka, and the ministers of defense, communication and media, and justice. He also met with victims of human rights abuses and their relatives, civil society and religious leaders, rights activists, members of the Banyamulenge community (a Congolese Tutsi minority from eastern Congo), opposition political party members, and foreign diplomats. Bolopion held a news conference in Kinshasa on May 21.
Human Rights Watch documented several cases in which the National Cyber Defense Council (Conseil national de cyberdéfense, or CNC), an agency attached to the presidency, arbitrarily arrested and forcibly disappeared dissidents, holding them in secret locations without formal charges or access to lawyers.
“I see my husband once a week, but I don’t know where he is,” said a woman whose husband had been abducted from their home one night. “I am blindfolded and don’t know where they take me.”
“Reports from Kinshasa of a sprawling network of secret detention sites, outside any judicial process, sends a chilling message to Congolese civil society,” Bolopion said. “It’s a practice that President Félix Tshisekedi had pledged to end when he took office.”
Government officials told Bolopion that some of those arrested were detained in villas, and that officials were still finalizing the investigation against them before transferring them into the justice system. They also indicated that reforms concerning the CNC were underway and that in the future, no arrests would be made without the presence of judicial police, who act under prosecutorial authority to investigate crimes.
“The serious security challenges facing Congo can’t justify an assault on the rule of law and basic human rights,” Bolopion said. “The authorities need to transfer those arbitrarily detained to the justice system, inform detainees’ families of their whereabouts, and abide by due process standards.”
Political opposition members and civil society activists expressed concern about a possible constitutional amendment to extend the president’s mandate beyond the two-term limit. This issue had previously arisen when then-President Joseph Kabila stayed in office past the constitutional limit.
In meetings with officials, Bolopion raised concerns about grave abuses committed by the parties to the conflict in eastern Congo, including the Congolese army, the allied Wazalendo militia, and pro-government armed groups, as well as the Rwandan army and the M23. He reiterated the importance of respecting international humanitarian law, including when carrying out airstrikes, and providing for the protection and free movement of civilians, and called for renewed international efforts to ensure accountability for crimes committed by all parties.
“For decades, civilians in eastern Congo have borne the brunt of abuses by government forces and armed groups,” Bolopion said. “Despite some important progress made by Congolese courts, judicial authorities have largely failed to prosecute senior commanders responsible for atrocities.”
Bolopion encouraged government officials to prioritize accountability for current and past international crimes, including by creating specialized mixed chambers with some international members, or a similar internationalized mechanism within the Congolese justice system. Congolese officials should also continue to support domestic prosecutions and International Criminal Court investigations.
In April, Human Rights Watch requested a meeting with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda to discuss abuses by the Rwandan military and M23 in eastern Congo, but received no response.
“Impunity breeds more abuses,” Bolopion said. “Donor governments including the European Union should support Congo’s efforts for accountability and sanction senior Congolese and Rwandan officials responsible for supporting abusive armed groups.”
Milestone UN Reports Advocate Moving Beyond GDP
There is growing recognition that current economic metrics fail to capture much of what really matters. Gross domestic product (GDP), which measures total economic activity and is a cornerstone of economic decision-making, is blind to issues such as whether children have quality public schools, people have access to health care, or government institutions are accountable to the public they serve. When economic decision-making is narrowly focused on GDP growth, it leaves human rights behind.
But two recent United Nations reports suggest a paradigm shift could be coming. The milestone reports offer concrete recommendations for moving beyond an overemphasis on GDP that could make a major difference for human rights.
A report released this month by a UN Secretary General-appointed expert group proposes alternative indicators for measuring economic progress. The dashboard of 31 indicators includes many directly related to human rights, in line with what Human Rights Watch has long advocated, such as key health and education outcomes and the prevalence of discrimination and intimate partner violence. It also includes measures of poverty, inequality, labor rights, environmental sustainability, and public trust.
While it is up to governments and international institutions now to adopt and integrate these indicators, they offer a chance to meaningfully shift economic incentives. The report also recommends development of a headline indicator that aggregates multiple dimensions. GDP weighs heavily on everything from credit ratings to borrowing costs, even though it is an unreliable predictor of economic vulnerability and resilience. An indicator that gives weight to human rights, inequality, and environmental sustainability could improve the quality of economic data while incentivizing governments to make decisions that lead to more equitable economies.
Another report, a “roadmap” for moving beyond an approach that depends on growth in order to improve respect for economic, social, and cultural rights, was launched on April 21 and comes from the UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier de Schutter. It lists evidence-based policies that the paper argues could better fulfill rights, including adequate funding for public services and universal social security and upholding labor rights, as well the adoption of indicators beyond GDP.
These reports do more than build momentum. They show the UN can meet the moment and use its position to try and shift something as globally entrenched as GDP fixation. It is now up to governments to follow suit.
Maldives: Attacks on Media Escalate
(Bangkok) – Two journalists were arrested in the Maldives in the second week of May, 2026, the first journalists jailed on criminal charges since the country adopted a democratic constitution in 2008, Human Rights Watch said today.
The Maldives authorities should immediately release the arbitrarily imprisoned journalists, Leevan Ali Naseer, 29, and Mohamed Shahzan, 31, and drop charges against media officials caught up in an escalating crackdown on press freedom in the country.
“The Maldives government’s wrongful jailing of two journalists and raiding of independent news outlets sends a chilling message about media freedom in the country,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government should urgently reverse the dangerous backsliding on media freedom.”
On April 27, the Serious and Organized Crime Department raided the office of the online newspaper Adhadhu in Malé, the capital, seizing journalists’ laptops and hard drives. On March 28, the news outlet had released the documentary “Aisha,” which alleges sexual misconduct and abuse of power by President Mohamed Muizzu against a former employee. Muizzu has denied the allegations.
The authorities subsequently imposed travel bans on Adhadhu’s CEO, Hussain Fiyaz Moosa, and managing editor, Hassan Mohamed. On May 10, the Prosecutor General’s Office charged the two under section 612(a) of the penal code for “qazf,” the false accusation of adultery under Islamic law, which carries a prison sentence of up to 19 months and up to 80 lashes.
On May 10, the Maldivian Criminal Court issued a gag order prohibiting public discussion of the documentary. Two days later, it convicted and sentenced Adhadhu journalists Naseer and Shahzan to 10 and 15 days in prison, respectively, for reporting on the gag order. The men were also ordered to pay fines of approximately Maldivian rufiyaa (MVR) 26,000 (US $1,700).
The media reported that both journalists were being held in poor and unsanitary conditions at Maafushi prison. On May 15, prison officials transferred Naseer to a separate unit, placed him in solitary confinement, and denied him access to medical treatment for a skin condition that had worsened in custody.
On May 17, the High Court rejected an appeal filed by the Maldives Journalists Association against the gag order, finding that the group did not qualify to appeal this case. The High Court subsequently accepted an appeal brought by Moosa on May 19 but has not yet ruled on it.
Following the arrests of Naseer and Shahzan, journalists and opposition party supporters staged public protests in Malé. Police obstructed and attacked the demonstrators, and on May 13 arrested 10 people at a protest organized by the People’s National Front and the Maldives Democratic Party; several remain detained. On May 19, 13 media outlets observed a 12-hour media blackout, suspending their daily reporting in protest against escalating attacks on the media.
The Maldives Journalists Association’s executive director, Mohamed Junayd, told Human Rights Watch that “in a criminal justice system that is struggling with a backlog of cases, the haste with which the executive, prosecutors, and judiciary have done their work in order to jail journalists, in secret trials without lawyers, is shocking. The seizure of protected journalistic material, travel bans, the sweeping gag order, and the jailing of journalists represents a calculated dismantling of the legal safeguards designed to protect journalists.”
Human Rights Watch and other human rights groups wrote to President Muizzu on May 8 to express serious concerns about the targeting of Adhadhu and other media outlets and journalists, and said that the government should publicly reaffirm its commitment to freedom of expression and independence of the media.
The media crackdown followed the Maldives’ parliament, the People’s Majlis, passing a law on September 16, 2025, the Maldives Media and Broadcasting Regulation Bill, that provides the government broad and discretionary powers to control and regulate the media. Adhadhu’s Mohamed said that under the law, “the government effectively has full control over the regulatory body, since members are elected through parliament, which the government controls. The law isn’t meant to promote media rights; it’s meant to suppress them.”
The law established a regulatory body, the Maldives Media and Broadcast Commission, that is empowered to order media outlets to issue correction notices on online content and to impose fines from MVR 5,000 ($325) to MVR 25,000 ($1,600) on journalists and media workers who fail to comply. In late April, the commission ordered Channel 13 television to halt its live transmission of opposition protests.
On May 19, three former Maldivian presidents, Mohamed Nasheed, Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom, and Ibrahim Solih, sent a joint letter to diplomatic missions and civil society groups covering the Maldives, including Human Rights Watch, saying that the current administration should release the journalists and those detained during protests.
The former presidents wrote that “a free press is among the clearest markers of the democracy… and its suppression follows a broader pattern of backsliding: the disempowerment of Parliament, the undermining of independent commissions, and the passage of a media act that empowers a government-aligned commission to discipline and shut down outlets.”
Islamist extremist gangs in the Maldives have long targeted activists and journalists for material deemed “offensive” to Islam. Some of these gangs have links to prominent politicians and have assaulted and murdered journalists with impunity.
“The Maldives is a very small country… so, when journalists are targeted, it’s very easy for people to identify and confront us,” Mohamed said. “When officials label us as anti-Islamic or aggressive, it puts us at real risk. ...The threat is very real, and it affects how we live our daily lives – going to work, taking our children to school, etc.”
“The renewed crackdown on the press in the Maldives shows that the gains in media freedom are very fragile,” Pearson said. “President Muizzu needs to send a strong public message to the police that free expression must be protected and that attacks on the media by anyone won’t be tolerated.”
Liberia: School Fees Block Children’s Access to Education
(Monrovia) – Registration fees and other costs to attend public schools in Liberia are a major barrier to education, forcing many children to delay enrollment, miss school, or drop out altogether, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 75-page report, “‘Without Education, There Will Be Nothing’: School Fees and Other Barriers to Education in Liberia,” documents that mandatory fees—despite a legal guarantee of free and compulsory education for grades 1 to 9—place a heavy financial burden on families and violate children’s right to education. Children in Liberia often enroll in school years late and are sent home when their parents are unable to pay their fees, or work to help pay them. Many drop out entirely or never attend school.
May 20, 2026 “Without Education, There Will Be Nothing”“The Liberian government has made important commitments to free and compulsory education, but school fees continue to keep children out of the classroom,” said Jo Becker, children’s rights advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “Removing these fees would be a crucial step to expand access to education and improve children’s futures.”
Between November 2025 and January 2026, Human Rights Watch visited 21 schools and interviewed 118 parents, teachers, and school administrators across Montserrado, Margibi, Nimba, Bong, and Grand Bassa counties. Liberian child advocates also conducted peer-to-peer interviews with 61 children and youth.
A 14-year-old boy told Human Rights Watch that he left school to help his mother sell goods in the market: “Right now, I’m not in school because my parents can’t afford to send me. I really want to go back.”
Liberia has one of the highest out-of-school rates in the world. Roughly one-third of all school-age children, ages 3 to 17, and half of rural children have never attended school. Only 38 percent of children complete grade 6, and just 17 percent complete grade 9. These figures place Liberia among the worst-performing education systems globally and underscore the scale of exclusion children face. On average, a child who enters school at age 4 will complete just 4.2 years of schooling by age 18.
Despite laws requiring free education from grades 1 to 9, children at all levels—from early childhood education through senior secondary—are required to pay registration fees and other costs to attend public schools.
For many children, mandatory fees are not an abstract policy failure, but result in daily exclusion from education. Parents and children said that fees delay school entry and disrupt attendance. At the early childhood level, intended for children ages 3 to 5, 43 percent of children are at least 3 years over age. By secondary school, more than 60 percent of students are 4 or more years older than the official age for their grade. Students who begin school late are more likely to repeat grades, drop out, and fail to complete their education.
The burden of fees is particularly severe in a country where nearly half the population lives in poverty. In this context, fees shift the cost of education onto families, contrary to Liberia’s obligations under international and regional human rights law, including the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child. Parents reported taking on debt, going without food, and making extreme sacrifices to keep their children in school.
Human Rights Watch also highlighted the broader challenges to education quality, including overcrowded classrooms, inadequate infrastructure, low teacher salaries, and heavy reliance on volunteer teachers. In some schools, classes of 80 to 100 students are common, and volunteers—many unpaid for years hoping to get a paid position—make up a large share of the teaching workforce.
Liberia’s education system continues to face the long-term effects of civil wars, the Ebola epidemic, and the Covid-19 pandemic. Public investment in education remains low. The 2026 education budget accounting for about 11 percent of national spending and 2.73 percent of GDP, is significantly below the average of 4 percent for members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the international benchmark of 4-6 percent of GDP.
The government has taken steps to improve access and quality, Human Rights Watch said. The Excellence in Learning in Liberia (EXCEL) project, a US$88.7 million initiative financed by a US$60 million World Bank loan and a US$28.7 million grant from the Global Partnership for Education, with additional government support, aims to expand access to quality education and includes US$18.5 million for school grants aimed at reducing or eliminating fees.
If fully implemented, these grants could significantly reduce financial barriers and help ensure that children enroll on time and remain in school. Human Rights Watch estimates that replacing registration fees with school grants for public schools—from early childhood through senior secondary education—would increase the education budget by roughly 4 percent, making the reform feasible.
The government should immediately eliminate registration fees at public primary and junior secondary schools and do so as quickly as possible for early childhood and senior secondary education, Human Rights Watch said. The government should also expand and sustain school grants, increase education funding in line with international benchmarks, and prioritize spending on early childhood through secondary education.
The government should also continue efforts to ensure sufficient paid and trained teaching staff, construct and rehabilitate schools and classrooms, and provide necessary materials and equipment, including restroom facilities, with priority to areas that are underserved.
Expanding access to free, quality public education would reduce poverty and inequality, strengthen Liberia’s human capital, and broaden opportunities for millions of children, Human Rights Watch said.
“Liberia has a clear opportunity to build on existing reforms and remove the financial barriers that keep so many children out of school,” Becker said. “Ensuring free, quality public education is one of the most effective investments the country can make.”
South Africa: New Waves of Xenophobic Attacks
(Johannesburg) – Vigilantes in South Africa have carried out violent xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals in recent weeks, with little or insufficient apparent response from the police and other authorities, Human Rights Watch said today.
In April and May 2026, a citizen-led movement, March and March, that advocates more stringent immigration enforcement in South Africa organized demonstrations against undocumented migrants in major cities including Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Durban, with violent and sometimes fatal results.
“South Africa’s constitution and international human rights law protects the right to protest, but that does not include permission to commit violence,” said Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka, South Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should not allow vigilante groups to violently target foreign nationals and instead need to protect them and bring those who harm them to justice.”
Since 2008—when 62 people, including 21 South Africans, 11 Mozambicans, 5 Zimbabweans and 3 Somalis, were killed—South Africa has been grappling with intermittent but widespread xenophobic harassment and violence against African and Asian foreign nationals living in the country, whether refugees, asylum seekers, or both documented and undocumented migrants.
Sporadic waves of violence erupted against foreign nationals in 2015, 2019—primarily targeting Nigerian nationals—and 2021-2022, with the rise of vigilante groups like Operation Dudula (“force out” in Zulu). Since 2024, the country’s deteriorating socioeconomic conditions, including an unemployment rate of over 43 percent, coincided with the rise of anti-immigrant activism and the formation of newer vigilante groups like March and March.
These groups scapegoat foreign nationals as the cause of South Africa’s economic woes, poor service delivery, and high rates of crime, despite studies that disprove these claims.
These groups have prevented foreign nationals from accessing health care and education in public facilities. In November 2025, the South Gauteng High Court granted an injunction against Operation Dudula, prohibiting its supporters from blocking migrants access to healthcare facilities.
Mpho Makhubela, a member of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (CoRMSA) and an activist in the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX) coalition, noted with concern the opportunistic nature of these groups.
“Vigilante groups feed off the country’s frustrations and socioeconomic rights regression, unemployment, [and] lack of efforts to address the equity gaps that we have as a country,” he said. “The reality is that the country has been faced with the enormous task of addressing the legacies of apartheid.”
A 43-year-old Cameroonian shop owner in Durban, who has lived in South Africa for nearly 20 years, said that people he believed to be affiliated with March and March attacked him on April 17, 2026, during protests in Durban targeting foreign-owned shops.
He closed his shop, locked the doors, and turned off the lights, but a group of approximately ten men broke down his door and, using a derogatory term, asked two South African women who run a hair salon in the shop about him. “They whipped me and my three colleagues who are not South African with golf sticks and sjamboks [heavy whips], and sprayed pepper spray on us,” he said. “They also used stun guns on us. We ran outside the shop, while unable to see clearly. They followed us outside and whipped us … no one came to assist us.”
The shop owner is married to a South African woman and lawfully living in South Africa, but he said his attackers did not seek to clarify his migration status. No law enforcement officers came to protect him, he said, similar to reports in previous years that South African police officers failed to protect foreign nationals, or worse, aided the attackers. The shop owner has not opened an assault case, as he does not have faith in the country’s criminal justice system.
Human Rights Watch has not verified reported cases of foreign nationals who died at the hands of vigilante groups during the demonstrations. However, a credible source described an episode days before the most recent protests in which police beat, tortured, and then placed a Malawian national in the trunk of a car after he did not produce proper documentation. The man died from his injuries.
On April 27, United Nations Secretary General António Guterres expressed concerns over the reported xenophobic harassment, discrimination, and attacks in South Africa. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights expressed similar concerns, calling on the government to investigate violence against foreign nationals and to ensure those responsible are held accountable and that affected migrants have access to justice and protection.
South Africa’s Constitution guarantees human rights, dignity, and equality to all within its borders, not only citizens. South Africa is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which impose obligations for states to protect everyone in their jurisdiction against attacks motivated by discrimination, including on grounds of ethnicity, social origin, or birth.
South Africa is also party to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; attacks on foreign nationals have been a matter of concern for the committee that monitors state compliance with the convention for over a decade.
In December 2023, the committee called on South Africa to “take measures to effectively combat organized vigilante groups”; “provide victims of discriminatory acts with adequate redress and support”; “ensure their protection, as well as the protection of their property”; and “adopt measures to ensure accountability and end impunity, including by conducting effective, thorough and impartial investigations into all reports of abuse and violations of human rights perpetrated against non-citizens, and prosecute and punish those convicted adequately with penalties commensurate with the offences.”
“South African authorities should intensify efforts to address anti-immigrant sentiments and violence to ensure the safety and protection of at-risk foreign nationals in the country,” Masiko-Mpaka said. “Vigilante groups need to be held fully accountable, including through effective criminal prosecutions.”
Detainee’s Death in Armenia Raises Serious Questions
The death of Armen Hovhannisyan by suicide on May 16, hours after Armenian police transferred him to a psychiatric institution, should prompt urgent scrutiny of how authorities respond to people in psychosocial distress.
Police in Artashat, about 30 kilometers from Yerevan, detained Hovhannisyan after he allegedly tore down an election campaign poster. Authorities opened criminal proceedings for “obstructing or coercing participation in campaign activities.” According to official information, while Hovhannisyan was in a police detention facility on May 16, officers observed what they described as “mentally unbalanced behavior” and called an ambulance. He was subsequently transferred to a psychiatric institution in Yerevan, where authorities said he died by suicide later that day.
But the official account leaves critical questions unanswered. Authorities have not said why police considered detention was necessary, how long Hovhannisyan was in custody for, what conditions he was held in or if he had seen a doctor or a lawyer, what supports and safeguards were put in place to protect his rights, or the basis for transferring him to a psychiatric institution.
These gaps matter. Contact with the criminal justice system should not culminate in loss of life or involve punitive, coercive, or unsupportive mental health responses.
Authorities said they opened a criminal investigation into Hovhannisyan’s death. As part of it, they should determine if Hovhannisyan’s detention, treatment in custody, and any psychiatric intervention complied with international standards, including the prohibitions on arbitrary detention, deprivation of liberty on the basis of disability, and the requirement that treatment be based on free and informed consent.
The case also points to a broader problem. Armenia has long relied on institutional and punitive responses to people with psychosocial disabilities, while community-based mental health support, crisis-response services, and accessible legal assistance remain inadequate.
Armenia is a party to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which requires authorities to respect legal capacity, provide reasonable accommodation, and ensure nondiscrimination for people with disabilities at all stages of criminal justice proceedings.
This points to the need for an investigation broader than a criminal one, one capable of addressing structural failures, including gaps in training, oversight, and accountability in law enforcement responses to people with psychosocial disabilities, as well as a lack of accessible, rights-based support outside of institutions. An effective investigation should identify not only what happened in this case but what needs to change to prevent similar deaths.
Gaza: Israel Curbs Aid, Kills Civilians During Ceasefire
(Beirut) – The humanitarian infrastructure sustaining life in Gaza remains in peril over six months after the ceasefire agreement in October 2025, Human Rights Watch said today. As the Board of Peace prepares to brief the United Nations Security Council on May 21 on its newly-issued six-month progress report, Israeli authorities are undermining humanitarian lifelines. Continuing Israeli attacks have killed at least 856 Palestinians and wounded 2,463 others, according to Gaza Health Ministry.
The Board of Peace, authorized under UN Security Council Resolution 2803, is tasked with assessing parties’ compliance with the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. Rapidly expanding and safeguarding aid is central to the plan, alongside restoring essential civilian infrastructure. But aid volumes remain far below required levels and critical humanitarian access routes have been repeatedly obstructed, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, (OCHA).
“The plan was supposed to bring relief. Instead, Palestinians in Gaza are still hungry, still cannot reach medical care, and civilians are still being killed,” said Adam Coogle, Middle East deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “Whatever the Board of Peace tells the Security Council, that is what life looks like six months in.”
In its May 15 report, the Board of Peace said that aid distributed by UN agencies and partners increased by over 70 percent during the reporting period compared to pre-ceasefire levels, and that "basic food needs have been stabilized for the first time since 2023." The Board's headline figures leave out that aid volumes have fallen since early 2026, have not recovered to where they were before the US and Israel-Iran war began in late February, and have never reached the minimum the UN says is needed. Four UN agencies warned in December 2025 that famine, pushed back only weeks earlier through the ceasefire, could rapidly return without sustained access and supplies.
On February 28, 2026, at the start of Israeli-US military operations against Iran, Israeli authorities closed all crossings into Gaza. Trucks entering in the following weeks fell from a weekly average of 4,200 to just 590, based on US military coordination figures reported by Haaretz. The Kerem Shalom crossing partially reopened on March 3, following reported US pressure, and Kerem Shalom and Zikim remain the only operational entry points for humanitarian and commercial goods. In the first 11 days of May, only half of the aid trucks arriving from Egypt were allowed to unload at Israeli-controlled crossings.
Commercial trucks have started entering Gaza again in larger numbers, with 789 private trucks crossing between May 4 and 10, according to OCHA. But total deliveries remain below pre-February 28 levels and far short of what Gaza’s population needs.
According to OCHA’s May 1 situation report, aid groups reached around 197,000 families with food parcels in April, covering 75 percent of minimum daily calorie needs, an improvement from March, when rations covered only half of those needs. But the total number of meals served daily has dropped since late March, with some aid groups scaling back direct food distribution, OCHA said.
The World Food Programme reported that people in Gaza were eating less in the first half of April than in March, with most families eating vegetables, fruit, or protein only once a week or less. With cooking gas in short supply, 68 percent of people are now burning waste to cook their meals, up 13 percent from March.
As of February 5, none of Gaza’s 37 hospitals were fully operational, and only 19 were even partially functioning, according to OCHA. Over 43,000 people have suffered life-changing injuries, one in four of them children, and more than 50,000 need long-term rehabilitation care, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates. No rehabilitation facility is fully running. Israeli delays in approving specialized surgical equipment are limiting complex care, and at least 46 percent of essential medicines are out of stock, according to WHO. Israeli restrictions on bringing in generators, engine oil, and spare parts are causing breakdowns across health care, sanitation, debris removal, and humanitarian work, according to OCHA.
Rodents and insects are spreading across displacement camps, and skin infections and other diseases are on the rise, OCHA reported. UN agencies and aid groups working on water and sanitation warn that severe shortages of lubricant oil and spare parts are causing generators to fail. In Khan Younis, sewage pumping stations have stopped working and untreated waste is flooding residential streets. Across Gaza, more than 200 water and sanitation facilities have been running on backup generators for over two and a half years, most now on recycled oil.
On April 6, Al Jazeera reported that Israeli forces fired on a WHO vehicle in eastern Khan Younis, killing a contractor and wounding several others. WHO suspended medical evacuations via Rafah for six days in response. As of late April, OCHA had recorded the killing of at least 593 aid workers in Gaza since October 2023, including 8 since the ceasefire.
Airstrikes killed an aid worker at a water well in Gaza City on April 20 and a worker for the NGO Ard El Insan on April 26, both triggering the suspension of essential services. According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than 1,400 patients have died waiting for medical evacuation since the Rafah crossing was seized in May 2024, and over 18,500 patients, including 4,000 children, still await evacuation.
The NGO Gisha has reported how Israeli authorities have categorically prevented access for Gaza patients in hospitals in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel, since October 2023, though they have at times facilitated limited access to treatment abroad, including through Israeli territory since July 2024.
Since the ceasefire, Israeli forces have moved the “Yellow Line,” the agreed limit of Israeli territorial control inside Gaza, westward beyond its agreed boundaries. They have established at least 32 outposts and constructing what appears to be a permanent or long-term ground barrier, according to satellite imagery analysis published by Haaretz. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights documened at least 167 Palestinians killed near the line between October 11 and January 21, including 26 children and 17 women. The head of Doctors Without Borders in Gaza told Haaretz that as the line moves west, it is swallowing up water points and health facilities.
According to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), 127 of its facilities now fall behind the line or in areas requiring Israeli approval for access. Since March 2025, Israeli authorities have blocked the agency from taking humanitarian assistance directly into Gaza.
The Comprehensive Plan includes commitments by Israel that remain unfulfilled, including a scale-up of humanitarian assistance. Human Rights Watch has previously raised concerns about other elements of the plan, including the creation of a Board of Peace with no Palestinian representation.
At the Board of Peace’s inaugural meeting in February, ten Board member states and observers pledged a total of US$17 billion for reconstruction against UN estimates of $70 billion needed. As of April, the Board had received less than $1 billion of the pledged amount, with only three contributors having delivered funds, according to Reuters.
Israel, as the occupying power, is required under international humanitarian law to ensure the civilian population has access to food, water, medical care, and essential supplies, and to facilitate the rapid and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief. Starving civilians as a method of warfare is a war crime under the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC). Deliberately imposing conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of a population constitutes an act of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
Human Rights Watch documented in December 2023 that Israel was using starvation as a weapon of war in Gaza, and in December 2024 published a report in which it found that Israel’s deliberate deprivation of water amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination and acts of genocide.
Israeli authorities should immediately comply with their obligations under international humanitarian law, including ensuring the unobstructed passage of humanitarian aid at scale through all crossings, lifting unlawful restrictions on UNRWA and other international humanitarian organizations, and ensuring the safety of humanitarian personnel, Human Rights Watch said.
Governments should suspend arms transfers to the Israeli government, impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials credibly implicated in serious abuses, suspend preferential trade agreements with Israel, and promote accountability by supporting the International Court of Justice and the ICC, including by enforcing the ICC’s arrest warrants.
“When the Board of Peace briefs the Security Council, members should weigh what they hear against what UN agencies are reporting from the ground,” Coogle said. “No spin can hide the fact that aid is not entering at the needed scale, patients do not have access to adequate medical care, and crossings to Gaza remain limited.”
‘Closing the Gaps’ on Needed Action to End Attacks on Health
United Nations member states and civil society organizations met in New York City on Tuesday to renew their commitment to protecting health care in armed conflict. The event, part of Protection of Civilians Week, recognized a systemic failure to respect and uphold international laws and norms governing the use of force against health care.
The event acknowledged the 10th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 2286 and warned of a growing pattern of assaults on hospitals, ambulances, and medical personnel during hostilities. The resolution urges states and all parties to armed conflicts to “prevent and address” further attacks.
Medical personnel are protected under the laws of war as civilians or military noncombatants. Infrastructure such as hospitals, health clinics, and ambulances have special protections, which they lose only if they are being used outside their humanitarian function to commit acts harmful to the enemy. Even then, health infrastructure is still protected against indiscriminate attacks or attacks causing disproportionate civilian harm. Attacks on infrastructure critical to the health of the population, such as water and electrical plants, can violate international human rights as well as humanitarian law.
Human Rights Watch has documented unlawful attacks on health care during armed conflict for decades, including in Syria, Myanmar, Gaza, Ukraine, and elsewhere.
Tuesday’s event focused on “closing the gaps” that exist between rhetoric and action, violations and accountability, and laws and justice. As the representative from Spain, one of the events co-hosts with Poland, said: “The gap is not narrowing, it’s widening.”
States should heed Resolution 2286’s call to prevent attacks on health in conflict. This includes improving data collection on attacks on and threats to health care; integrating measures to ensure respect for international law into military doctrine and training; expanding domestic law to incorporate legal obligations under international law; and restricting the sale and export of arms and other technologies that may be used to identify, target, and attack healthcare facilities and personnel to known perpetrators. Governments should regularly and publicly report on actions taken to comply with these and other legal obligations.
Deliberately targeting health in conflict violates the foundational principles of international law and condemns civilians to suffer the long-lasting consequences of war without adequate access to desperately needed care. It is up to governments to turn their words into actions.
Philippine Court Clears Group of Terrorism Financing Charges
This week, a court in the Philippines dismissed terrorism financing charges against the Community Empowerment Resource Network (CERNET), a nongovernmental organization based in Cebu province that works with marginalized groups to promote economic, social, and cultural rights.
Philippine authorities filed multiple cases under the Terrorism Financing Prevention and Suppression Act of 2012 against human rights activists and civil society groups in an apparent attempt by the authorities to be taken off the “grey list” of a global terrorism financing and money laundering watchdog, the Financial Action Task Force. Being grey-listed means, among other impacts, difficulty in accessing international financial markets and reputational damage for the Philippines.
In a statement following the court ruling, Oliver Gimenez, chair of CERNET’s board, said the “ruling exposes the dangers of weaponizing counterterrorism laws against legitimate humanitarian and development work.”
The charges were dropped after the court granted CERNET’s plea to dismiss what the ruling described as an “insufficiently charged” case. Prosecutors had filed terrorism financing charges against CERNET in 2024, alleging it had transferred PHP135,000 (US$2,200) to the New Peoples’ Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The Anti-Money Laundering Council had frozen CERNET’s bank accounts in 2023 while a preliminary investigation at the Department of Justice was ongoing, hampering their ability to transact in the banking system. According to Ephraim Cortez, CERNET’s counsel, this affected 70 percent of the organization’s work. Despite the court ruling in CERNET’s favor, their bank accounts remain frozen.
Despite the Philippines having been removed from the Financial Action Task Force’s grey list in February 2025, authorities are continuing to file new terrorism financing charges against activists and to prosecute existing cases involving civil society groups and journalists. The task force and its regional member countries—which will review the Philippines’ record on countering terrorism financing and money laundering next year—should urge the Philippine government to ensure that anti-terrorism measures are not being misused to target, harass, or impede civil society.
UN Experts Sound Alarm Over Saudi Arabia’s Abusive Labor Governance System
Leading UN human rights experts on issues of slavery, migration, and human trafficking worldwide have urged Saudi Arabia on April 29 to effectively abolish the kafala (sponsorship) system, an abusive system ties workers to their sponsors for their residency and work permits. Despite Saudi authorities’ Labor Reform Initiative in 2021 and the narrative Saudi leaders have cultivated around migrant worker welfare, experts have highlighted that exploitation has persisted, including unaccountable deaths, wage theft, workplace violence, retention of identity documents, and exorbitant recruitment fees.
This aligns with Human Rights Watch’s research finding that, despite several waves of labor reforms including the Labor Reform Initiative, migrant workers continue to face widespread abuse across employment sectors and geographic regions. Numerous migrant workers still experience conditions that amount to forced labor; this includes workers employed in high profile mega- and giga-projects funded by or linked to the Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund.
Human Rights Watch research has also found migrant workers die due to avoidable work-place accidents; their deaths are erroneously classified as “natural” and are neither investigated nor compensated. As UN experts have rightly pointed out, these vulnerabilities are further exacerbated during times of crisis, such as the current regional conflict, when migrant workers faced heightened risks of job losses, injuries and deaths.
Despite evidence from trade unions, human rights groups, and UN bodies documenting Saudi Arabia’s severe lapses in labor rights enforcement, officials continue to defend these ineffective reforms while disregarding substantial evidence of abuses and calls for change. Saudi authorities have dismissed reports by rights groups on the grounds that victim accounts are anonymized, while failing to provide their own evidence that claimed reforms are being implemented and have made meaningful improvements in workers’ lives.
Saudi authorities attempted to close a recent complaint filed by African trade unions against the state for not adhering to its binding commitment in relation to several International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions in the 356th Session of the Governing Body in March 2026. The Governing Body has deferred its review of Saudi Arabia’s request for dismissal to November 2026.
Officials’ refusal to engage with evidence risks misrepresenting migrant workers’ realities, weakens accountability, and sends hiring companies the message that they do not need to make meaningful reforms. Saudi authorities should act on the recommendations from the UN experts and other organizations to abolish the kafala system and fully enforce all announced reforms.
Norway: Court Blocks Activist’s Extradition to Greece
(Athens, May 19, 2026) – The decision by a Norwegian appeals court on May 15, 2026, to block the extradition of a human rights defender, Tommy Olsen, to Greece is a victory for human rights, Human Rights Watch said today. A district court had initially approved the extradition request on March 16, but Olsen filed an appeal.
The Hålogaland Court of Appeal unanimously recognized that the acts described by Greek authorities in its extradition request do not constitute criminal offenses under Norwegian law, and that his extradition would risk violating his right to freedom of expression under article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The court concluded that Olsen’s actions were lawful acts protected by international treaties that bind both Norway and Greece.
“The court’s decision not to extradite Tommy Olsen is a victory for the work of human rights defenders, and a direct rebuff to Greece’s attempt to export its crackdown on dissent,” said Eva Cossé, senior Europe researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Greece should now revoke the warrant and drop all charges against Olsen and his codefendant Panayote Dimitras.”
Olsen, founder of the nongovernmental group Aegean Boat Report, was targeted in 2023 by Greek authorities with unfounded charges linked to his work documenting illegal pushbacks of asylum seekers and migrants at Greece’s borders. He is being prosecuted by Greek authorities alongside a Greek human rights defender, Panayote Dimitras, of Greek Helsinki Monitor. Greek authorities should drop all charges against Olsen and Dimitras and stop weaponizing criminal law to silence the country’s critics, Human Rights Watch said.
The case against Olsen and Dimitras is part of a wider pattern of misuse of criminal law to harass activists defending the rights of migrants. In January, a Greek court in Lesbos acquitted 24 humanitarian workers of the felony charges against them after a seven-year ordeal, during which some had spent periods in detention for their peaceful activism. The European Parliament described it as the “largest case of criminalization of solidarity in Europe.”
Greek authorities recently passed legislation that makes it easier to criminalize civil society organizations involved in aiding migrants and asylum seekers.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human right defenders, Mary Lawlor, expressed deep concern on March 19 about Olsen’s arrest, stating that these charges appear to be “in direct retaliation” for Olsen’s work and to form part of a “long-standing and well-documented repression” of rights defenders in Greece.
Extraditions under the European Arrest Warrant from one European Union state to another are largely automatic (with similar rules for Norway, a non-EU state), but the Court of Justice of the European Union has ruled that they can be delayed or halted on human rights grounds. As long as Olsen remains subject to an extradition request under the warrant, he will face a risk of arrest and extradition to Greece if he travels to any European Union state.
“Olsen remains at risk of politically motivated prosecution and extradition as long as Greece’s European Arrest Warrant remains in force,” Cossé said. “Greece should revoke the warrant, and other states should make clear they will respond to it as the Norwegian court has done.”
Indonesia: Plan to Vet Human Rights Defenders
(Jakarta) – An Indonesian official announced on April 30, 2026, that the government would seek to amend the country’s 1999 Human Rights Law to allow authorities to determine who is a recognized human rights defender, Human Rights Watch said today. Adopting such revisions would violate fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association and put rights defenders at greater risk.
Following the public outcry after four Indonesian soldiers allegedly attacked rights activist Andrie Yunus with acid on March 12 in Jakarta, Human Rights Minister Natalius Pigai said that the government would set up “a team of assessors” to determine whether someone is a “genuine” activist. When human rights groups criticized this proposal, Pigai said that he had been misunderstood, and that proposed revisions to the Human Rights Law would include a definition of human rights defenders to ensure their protection from criminalization.
“It’s not up to President Prabowo Subianto’s government to decide who is or isn’t a human rights defender,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Indonesian authorities should protect all those who work to uphold human rights instead of rooting out government critics under the guise of identifying ‘genuine’ rights defenders.”
Pigai said that the state would grant legal protection only to those defending the public interest, especially vulnerable groups, without personal or commercial interests. He said an assessment team would include government officials, civil society, and law enforcement to evaluate if someone is in fact a human rights activist. Activists paid for their work, he said, would not qualify, which in effect could harm the work of nongovernmental groups that promote human rights.
Muhammad Isnur, chair of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia, YLBHI), said that the government should not have the authority to screen human rights defenders since it is often the government itself that violates human rights. “The consequences would be dangerous,” he told Human Rights Watch. “It is the state that should be the object of scrutiny, to determine whether it is violating human rights or not.”
Victor Mambor, a Papuan journalist at the Jayapura-based newspaper Jubi, said that the status of a human rights defender ultimately comes from public recognition and should not be a badge from the government. “Someone who works for humanity can be called a human rights defender without needing state recognition,” he said.
Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komisi Nasional Hak Asasi Manusia, Komnas HAM), said that threats against human rights defenders often involve state officials and corporations, and that any labeling by the government would be a clear conflict of interest. Komnas HAM is authorized to recognize a rights defender when needed, for instance, to seek the state protection or to get medical assistance.
The proposed revision of the Human Rights Law also includes provisions that would weaken the authority, mandate, and independence of Komnas HAM, including by merging it with the National Commission on Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) and the Indonesian Child Protection Commission (Komisi Perlindungan Anak Indonesia, KPAI), two other official organizations, diluting their authority as well. The amendments are being reviewed, Pigai said, and the final draft is to be introduced in the House of Representatives for a vote in June or July.
These proposals are particularly concerning as President Prabowo has repeatedly decried his critics as “foreign lackeys,” Human Rights Watch said. The government is drafting a Bill on Combating Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda, which gives the state authority to designate certain information as “foreign propaganda.” Vague definitions would facilitate abuse and censorship because it would allow the authorities to label any criticism of the government as a threat to sovereignty or an incitement to violence, Human Rights Watch said.
In addition to the March 2026 acid attack against Yunus, activists in Indonesia have been repeatedly targeted in recent years. Unidentified assailants shot human rights lawyer Yan Christian Warinussy in July 2024 after he attended a corruption trial involving government officials in Manokwari. Adetya Pramandira and Fathul Munif, who work for the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Wahana Lingkungan Hidup Indonesia, WALHI) and Thursday Action (Aksi Kamisan) respectively, were arrested in November 2025 in Semarang, Central Java and accused of inciting the August anti-corruption protests.
Under the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, a human rights defender is any person or group of persons who works to promote and defend human rights. It affirms that anyone has the right to be a human rights defender, so long as they oppose human rights violations by peaceful means.
Preventing individuals from engaging in human rights work—for instance, by receiving payment as professional human rights defenders—would violate their fundamental rights to freedom of expression and association under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Indonesia is a party, and other international human rights treaties.
“Prabowo should firmly reject any attempt to restrict the rights of anyone acting to promote respect for human rights,” Ganguly said. “The government needs to recognize that the promotion of human rights, including by those who criticize government abuses, is good for everyone.”
Myanmar: No Redress for Rohingya Muslims in Arakan Army Massacre
(Bangkok) – Two years after the Arakan Army, an ethnic armed group, killed and wounded hundreds of Rohingya Muslims and burned down their village in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, the survivors remain unable to return home, with many effectively detained, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The Arakan Army has rejected responsibility for the massacre at Hoyyar Siri (Htan Shauk Khan in Burmese), Buthidaung township, which involved grave violations of the laws of war amounting to war crimes.
The 56-page report, “‘Skeletons and Skulls Scattered Everywhere’: Arakan Army Massacre of Rohingya Muslims in Hoyyar Siri, Myanmar,” documents the May 2, 2024 attack, in which Arakan Army fighters deliberately fired on unarmed villagers who were seeking safety after the armed group advanced on two Myanmar military bases in the vicinity. Details of the massacre only began emerging more than a year later, after some survivors fled to Bangladesh and Malaysia.
“The Arakan Army’s murder of hundreds of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their village in Rakhine State in 2024 took the armed conflict with Myanmar’s junta to a new level of depravity,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Today, the massacre’s survivors are effectively detained by the Arakan Army, which has neither provided redress nor held those responsible to account.”
Human Rights Watch interviewed several dozen witnesses and survivors, corroborated their accounts by satellite imagery, and analyzed and verified photographs and videos.
Hostilities between Myanmar junta forces and the Arakan Army in Rakhine State resumed in November 2023. Both sides have been responsible for serious abuses, including targeted attacks on civilians, arson, and unlawful conscription. The findings contradict the Arakan Army’s claims in a letter to Human Rights Watch that its fighters only targeted military personnel or members of Rohingya armed groups.
Arakan Army fighters first opened fire on a group of civilians leaving Hoyyar Siri, some of whom were waving white flags. “First, my son was hit by a bullet,” said one man. “Then my wife and baby daughter were shot, followed by my other daughter.” The fighters continued to fire on the villagers as they turned back and attempted to flee.
One woman said the fighters gathered a group of villagers in a paddy field beside a mosque. “Within minutes they opened fire at us randomly, without saying anything,” she said. “No one was spared. My husband was hit by a bullet. When the Arakan Army saw he was still alive, they came closer, firing at him several more times.”
Human Rights Watch compiled a list of over 170 villagers, including about 90 children, who were killed or are still missing after the Hoyyar Siri massacre. The actual death toll is likely much higher.
Human Rights Watch analyzed and verified photographs and videos showing human remains at three separate sites in the village. At two of these sites, civilian clothing is visible among human remains. Satellite imagery corroborates witness accounts that Arakan Army fighters set fire to Hoyyar Siri and, after taking control, destroyed the entire village.
The fighters also robbed villagers of their cash and jewelry. One man detained by the Arakan Army said that he and other detainees were beaten and tortured, including with electric shocks. Several witnesses reported that fighters abducted Rohingya women and girls from the village.
In February 2025, the Arakan Army ordered all surviving Hoyyar Siri residents to relocate to a makeshift camp nearby. Villagers who later managed to flee to Bangladesh told Human Rights Watch that they were denied freedom of movement, subjected to forced labor, and faced severe shortages of food and medical care. They said that in August, the armed group organized a controlled media visit to Hoyyar Siri in which survivors were forced to provide false testimony to exonerate the Arakan Army for killing the civilians.
Over the past decade, the Myanmar military has committed ethnic cleansing, genocidal acts, and other atrocities in Rakhine State that have forced over a million Rohingya to flee. The massacre in Hoyyar Siri underscores that returning to Rakhine State is still unsafe for Rohingya refugees, even in areas now controlled by the Arakan Army.
The Myanmar military and Arakan Army should immediately end attacks on civilians, release all civilians unlawfully detained, and provide redress to victims and their families, Human Rights Watch said. The Arakan Army in its letter to Human Rights Watch said it would facilitate inquiries by international human rights groups deemed credible and independent. Both parties should cooperate fully with independent investigations, including by granting access to the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar, and human rights groups.
“Myanmar’s military seemed indifferent to the plight of the Rohingya civilians at Hoyyar Siri in 2024, and since then the junta has done nothing to address their broader human rights concerns,” Ganguly said. “Concerned governments should urgently press both the Myanmar junta and the Arakan Army to respect the rights of all communities in Rakhine State.”
Rwanda Genocide Suspect Dies without Facing Justice
The death of accused Rwandan genocide financier Félicien Kabuga closes an important chapter of the country’s 1994 genocide. Unfortunately, it also robs survivors of a chance for justice many had waited decades to see.
Kabuga, long alleged to have financed the extremist militia that carried out the genocide and helped fuel genocidal propaganda through Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines, died in a hospital in The Hague at the age of 93 on May 16 while in custody of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals. He had been declared unfit to stand trial in 2023 because of dementia and deteriorating health.
For years, Kabuga symbolized both the persistence of international justice efforts and long-standing impunity for crimes committed during the genocide. Indicted in the 1990s, his 2020 arrest in France after more than two decades as a fugitive was a breakthrough for genocide victims and survivors.
When his trial opened in The Hague in 2022, 28 years after the genocide, it was an important opportunity to establish a full public record of the role Kabuga played in it.
Alison Des Forges, who was a senior adviser to the Africa Division at Human Rights Watch for almost two decades, published in her authoritative account of the genocide, “Leave None to Tell the Story,” that “Radio RTLM, which had incited to genocide before April 6, communicated the orders for implementing the killings after that date. It instructed people to erect barriers and carry out searches; it named persons to be targeted and pointed out areas which should be attacked…. So important was this means of communication that officials admonished citizens to keep listening to the radio for instructions from the interim government.”
Des Forges also documented how Kabuga was implicated in ordering the thousands of machetes imported to Rwanda in 1993 and early 1994, and how he supported the military training for the Interahamwe youth militia, whose members hunted down Tutsi civilians during the genocide.
Kabuga died without a judicial determination of guilt or innocence, marking a painful lack of closure for the victims of one of the gravest crimes of the 20th century.
There is no expiration date on justice for the most serious crimes, and alleged perpetrators of the Rwandan genocide continue to be arrested in different countries. Judicial authorities should ensure that survivors and victims don’t face more delays.
Court Judgment Raises Concerns About Civic Freedoms in Nigeria
On May 5, a Nigerian high court ordered the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a prominent local human rights organization, to pay 100 million naira (about US$72,000) in damages to two Department of State Services officials. The court also directed the organization to publish public apologies and pay litigation costs.
The Department of State Services officials filed the civil case against SERAP following the latter’s September 2024 allegations that officials unlawfully invaded its Abuja office after the organization criticized the Nigerian National Petroleum Company over increases in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS).
The judgment raises serious human rights concerns, particularly for freedom of expression and the ability of civil society groups to report alleged state abuses without fear of retaliation. Governments should not be able to instrumentalize defamation suits to intimidate or retaliate against critics who call out alleged human rights violations.
SERAP has appealed the ruling and filed for a stay of execution pending the outcome of the appeal. The organization described the judgment as a “travesty” and argued that the court relied on defective evidence and committed significant legal and procedural errors.
More than 50 Nigerian civil society organizations have since expressed support for SERAP, warning that the judgment could undermine freedom of expression and discourage public-interest advocacy. The groups also raised concerns over reports that the Certified True Copy and full text of the judgment had not been publicly released despite widespread public commentary on the case. They called for transparency in judicial proceedings and protection of constitutional guarantees, including freedom of expression, a fair hearing, and access to justice.
Nigeria’s judiciary should play a critical role in safeguarding democratic accountability and public confidence in the rule of law. As the appeal proceeds, judicial authorities should ensure transparency, uphold due process, and protect the rights guaranteed under Nigeria’s constitution and international human rights obligations.
El Salvador: Human Rights Lawyer Still in Jail One Year on
(Washington, DC) – The prominent anti-corruption lawyer Ruth López remains in pretrial detention in El Salvador with her case under judicial seal one year after her arrest, Human Rights Watch said today. Salvadoran authorities should guarantee López a prompt, open, and fair trial, lift the judicial secrecy on her case file, and allow her regular contact with her family and lawyers.
López, 48, heads the Anti-Corruption Unit at Cristosal, one of Central America’s leading human rights organizations. She has investigated alleged corruption by senior officials in the administration of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and denounced serious human rights violations under the country’s state of emergency. López’s detention marked the start of an escalating crackdown on government critics, including human rights defenders and journalists.
“Ruth López spent years warning that President Bukele was dismantling the institutions that protect Salvadorans from abuse of power,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “Her own case is sadly the clearest evidence that she was right. The authorities should lift the secrecy on her case, present any credible evidence in an open court, and allow López meaningful access to her lawyers.”
Police arrested López on May 18, 2025, at her home in San Salvador. López was initially charged with embezzlement in connection with her work, over a decade ago, as an adviser to a former Supreme Electoral Tribunal magistrate, Eugenio Chicas. Approximately 15 days after her arrest, prosecutors changed the charge to illicit enrichment.
At a hearing on June 4, 2025, a judge sent her to pretrial detention. She was subsequently transferred to La Granja de Izalco prison, where she remains. In December, the judge overseeing the case extended her pretrial detention for an additional six months. Her current pretrial detention order is set to expire in June 2026.
The evidence against López has not been presented in open court. The judge has not publicly articulated a reason to keep her case under judicial seal.
Through her work at Cristosal, López investigated the alleged misuse of public funds—including irregularities in pandemic-era public contracting—and filed legal challenges against the May 2021 summary removal of the attorney general and the five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber. She also helped lead the citizen campaign against the December 2024 repeal of El Salvador’s metal mining ban and, in early 2025, filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of Venezuelans transferred from United States custody to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, CECOT).
López’s arrest was followed by sweeping measures targeting government critics, Human Rights Watch found.
On May 20, 2025, two days after López was detained, the Legislative Assembly, controlled by President Bukele’s party, passed a “foreign agents law.” The law claims to promote “transparency,” but in practice provides the government expansive authority to control, stigmatize, and sanction human rights groups and independent media outlets that receive international support.
Since the law came into force, the Association of Journalists of El Salvador and at least three other civil society organizations have closed their Salvadoran offices, citing the requirements imposed by the law.
On June 7, 2025, police arrested Enrique Anaya, one of the country’s most prominent constitutional lawyers and a vocal government critic, on alleged money laundering charges. A few days before his arrest, Anaya had publicly condemned López’s detention. He remains in pretrial detention, and his case file is also under seal.
As a consequence of this escalation, many government critics have gone into exile. Between May and September 2025, at least 140 human rights defenders and journalists left the country. Cristosal announced in July 2025 that it was suspending its operations in El Salvador and relocating to Guatemala and Honduras. They said they had to choose between “exile and prison.”
The use of indefinite pretrial detention against López and other government critics reflects a broader pattern in El Salvador, where successive legal changes adopted since 2022 have effectively dismantled due process guarantees, including limits on pretrial detention, and allowed for mass hearings of hundreds of defendants at a time. Most of these measures were adopted under the state of emergency in force since March 2022, which has been used to detain more than 91,000 people. Human Rights Watch has documented widespread human rights violations during the state of emergency, including mass arbitrary detention, torture, enforced disappearances, and inhumane conditions in detention.
Judicial independence in El Salvador has been severely compromised since May 2021, when the Legislative Assembly summarily removed the five magistrates of the Constitutional Chamber and the attorney general, replacing them with allies of the executive.
On September 22, 2025, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said that López and Anaya faced serious and urgent risks to their life, integrity, and health, and urged El Salvador to guarantee adequate prison conditions, including regular contact with family and lawyers. Salvadoran authorities have not publicly reported any steps to implement these measures.
Foreign governments and international human rights bodies, including the United Nations Human Rights Council, should substantially step up their public scrutiny of El Salvador’s human rights record, Human Rights Watch said. They should publicly press El Salvador to grant López, Anaya and other critics who have been detained a prompt, open, and fair trial, lift the judicial secrecy on their cases, and guarantee them regular contact with their families and lawyers.
Under its Democratic Charter, the Organization of American States (OAS) has a mandate to discuss and take action against “unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order.” Yet its Permanent Council has for years abdicated its responsibility to discuss the situation in El Salvador.
“With its crackdown against human rights defenders and journalists, El Salvador is joining the ranks of authoritarian governments like Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba,” Goebertus said. “Latin American and European governments should take the country’s authoritarian drift seriously and urgently step up their response.”
One Year on Since Arrest of Opposition Leader in Chad
One year after Chadian authorities arrested and later sentenced Succès Masra, the prominent opposition leader and former prime minister, his continued imprisonment on politically motivated charges underscores the government’s intolerance of dissent.
Masra, leader of the opposition party Les Transformateurs (The Transformers), was arrested at his residence in N’Djamena early on May 16, 2025. He was accused of inciting hatred and violence through social media posts following May 14 intercommunal clashes in Logone Occidental province that killed dozens. Directly following the killings, he took to social media where he expressed condolences to the victims and stated that “no Chadian’s life should be taken for granted.”
A Chadian court convicted Masra in August 2025 on charges of inciting violence and complicity in murder, sentencing him to 20 years in prison. Masra, who pleaded not guilty, was tried alongside dozens of co-defendants, most of whom also received 20-year sentences. The court also imposed a substantial fine on the defendants.
Immediately following the conviction, Masra’s lawyers filed an appeal, which is still pending.
While clashes between herder and farmer communities are recurrent in southern Chad, Masra’s arrest fits a broader pattern of shrinking political space. Prior to the May 2024 presidential elections, in which Masra ran against then-transitional President Mahamat Idriss Déby, Masra and his supporters faced threats and arbitrary arrests. A prominent opposition figure was killed in the run-up to the vote with no accountability.
After the election, Masra alleged the vote was rigged.
Security forces have also used excessive force against protesters, including during demonstrations in 2021 and 2022 that left scores dead and injured. Hundreds were arbitrarily detained, with some subjected to ill-treatment. On May 8, eight opposition leaders were tried and sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of rebellion and insurrection after they attempted to organize a banned pro-democracy protest.
Now it has been a year since Masra was detained, and the Supreme Court should hear his appeal.
Regional actors including the Economic Community of Central African States, who have thus far failed to protect democratic principles in Chad, also have a role to play. They should press Chad to restore political rights and comply with prior agreements such as the Kinshasa Accord, which aimed to guarantee safe political activity for opposition parties, including Masra’s.
Ukraine’s Proposed Legislation Threatens Rights
Ukraine’s parliament on April 28 advanced a bill to make sweeping reform of the national civil code, which raises significant human rights concerns.
The draft, which was adopted in the first reading, does not include same-sex partnerships in the definition of “marriage.” A recent landmark ruling from Ukraine’s Supreme Court recognized that a same-sex partnership constituted “family,” yet the legislators, instead of endorsing that shift towards equality, are choosing to further entrench discrimination in law. Without formal legal recognition, same-sex partners in Ukraine are not considered family, blocking access to a range of rights.
While public support for family equality in Ukraine has soared to over 70 percent since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, this bill appears frozen in the past, failing to reflect a society that has fundamentally progressed.
Other provisions are equally problematic. The bill repeatedly refers to an ambiguous concept of “good morals” in relation to regulating private relations, opening the door to arbitrary interpretation. Archaically, the draft allows a former husband to compel his ex-wife to revert to her maiden name based on his assessment of her “immoral” conduct while married. A mandatory “reconciliation process” for divorcing couples with children could trap people in harmful or abusive situations.
The bill also undermines the best interests of the child and weakens protections for people with disabilities. It permits retroactively changing an adopted child’s date and place of birth and keeping secret from the child the fact of their adoption. The bill also effectively legalizes the abandonment of children with disabilities by allowing parents to leave them at healthcare facilities. Additionally, the draft retains a rigid guardianship system, stripping people with disabilities of legal capacity and denying them autonomy over decisions regarding their medical care and family life.
Some legislators have defended the bill, noting it reflects “years of work” by legal experts. However, leading human rights groups raised alarm that the draft puts Ukraine afoul of its international obligations—including the European Convention on Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. The bill also departs from the European Union non-discrimination principles, potentially complicating Ukraine’s accession path.
During the next stages of the legislative process parliament should bring the draft in line with Ukraine’s international obligations. Legal reform should be designed to protect, not undermine, Ukrainians’ human rights and to promote equality and the rule of law.